Women in the Workforce

The Hon. J.S. LEE (14:45): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for the Status of Women questions about the lack of opportunities for young women.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: In a report in the Sunday Mail on the weekend, it was noted that women in their early 20s are continuing an exodus from South Australia at far greater rates than their male counterparts. Data from the past decade reveals that an average of 807 women aged between 20 years old to 29 years old left SA each year, compared to an average of 571 men. Reports have identified that career and lifestyle opportunities were the main factors in the decision of a young person to move interstate.

Furthermore, in the state government's Achieving Women's Equity report it was revealed that women are more likely to be in part-time employment, with one in five wanting to work more hours. Women comprise 47 per cent of the South Australian workforce, and only half of these women are in full-time employment. Criticism has been aimed at the state government for not doing enough to create opportunities for young South Australians. In the Office for Women's policy document the Labor government outlined its responsibility for improving women's economic status. My questions of the minister are:

1. Does the minister agree that South Australia has a gender issue, as reported in the media?

2. What retention strategies will the government introduce to keep young women in South Australia?

3. How will the government be meeting its objectives outlined in its report for improving women's economic status, and what outcomes have been achieved so far?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:47): I thank the honourable member for her most important question. Indeed, increasing the participation of women in employment and leadership roles and ensuring their safety continues to be a priority for the Weatherill government. We are also committed to ensuring that women can access information through our Women's Information Service, and we continue to receive specialist advice about women's issues through the Premier's Council for Women.

In terms of achieving women's equity, and I have spoken on these issues many times before in this place, but it is worth repeating: some of the barriers to women accessing employment and continuing to remain in employment include being able to have access to workplace flexibility arrangements. Achieving women's equity includes a number of short and long-term initiatives to help ensure that women can achieve economic independence, and do so across their life span. Some of the things mentioned are: encouraging and promoting the use of flexible workplace options, particularly showcasing flexible work success stories.

We know that women continue to be the primary carers, and not just in terms of young children but also ageing parents. So, it is critical that women are able to achieve a degree of flexibility in their workplace that allows them to be able to balance those caring needs and their work needs. It is important that workplaces continue to implement policy that caters for flexible workplace arrangements, but it is more than that. It is about encouraging women and men to take advantage of those provisions and to showcase what a success that can be.

Others include establishing scholarship support for women in STEM; establishing online networks; encouraging women to access training and pathways for employment in high demand, non-traditional female industries such as IT, in particular, and there are a number of programs that we have in place around STEM encouraging women in that space; developing a women's economic independence strategy that includes a focus on economic empowerment and, again, non-traditional employment because we know that in those areas of employment that are dominated by men those areas of employment tend to be higher paid than those that are highly represented by women, thus there is a gender pay equity gap and ensuring that women move into some of those non-traditional work areas will help overcome that.

Other initiatives involve undertaking research into the specific causes of the gender pay gap in South Australia and encouraging businesses to undertake gender pay audits and implement strategies to reduce the gender pay gap. A lot of organisations say, 'No, there is no pay gap here in our organisation,' yet when they do an audit, a stocktake, they find that there are in fact some big differences between the genders.

In terms of women in science and STEM, the Department for Education and Child Development, the Department of State Development and the Office for Women have developed a promotional campaign to encourage women to access training in high-demand non-traditional industries such as mining, defence and construction. Building on previous support to pre-employment and leadership development programs, this strategy now includes the development of an online resource and other supports.

In terms of the workplace flexibility that I referred to, as a Labor government we have said that we will make the public sector chief executives personally responsible and accountable for ensuring that flexible work options are available to staff and that chief executives need to be able to report on their achievements in this area. It will be a new imperative for them to increase the numbers of women in executive positions within the public sector. We are also looking at the ongoing recognition of women's contribution to society and their representation at all levels, including their professional life and the promotion of women in non-traditional areas of employment.

The Premier's Women's Council has put forward a wonderful tool to help organisations understand their gender equity of staffing better and to assist them to ensure that there is better representation of women within their organisations. So, they are a few things that we are doing to address that issue. It is something that is entrenched right throughout our society, right throughout our culture. Whilst our society continues to have attitudes that devalue women and reflect a lack of respect for women, it will be extremely difficult to overcome some of these barriers. Nevertheless, it is important that we never stop trying to ensure that we do achieve gender equity in this state and in this nation.